Programmatic is transforming traditional advertising into advising.

“As a brand, the ideal is personalized conversations with customers in their moment of decision. Not advertising, but advising.” Chief Digital Officer Charlie Fiordalis shares how brands can break through the age of automation to meaningfully engage with consumers.

“Addressable television has all of the opportunity in the world — but we’re by no means there yet.” Media Storm’s John Collins discusses the challenges facing addressable TV and how we can move it forward.

No, robots didn’t overthrow the industry. More advanced artificial intelligence tools instead showed they might enable marketers to be more creative than ever.

Marketing seemed to step further into a sci-fi future this year through strides made in artificial intelligence, machine learning and automated interfaces. As a result, automation progressed from having a small role mostly via programmatic buying to being an exciting oddity, as shown by the interest in chatbots, to earning a prominent spot as a must-have for marketing’s next era.

….While automated tools have played a prominent role in digital marketing since the early days of ad exchanges, 2016 proved to be a breakout period for their taking over the “rote and reptitive” aspects of business, according to Charlie Fiordalis, chief digital officer at the media buying agency Media Storm.

Service lands deals with big brands, but some marketers remain unsure about live videogame streaming

By Mike Shields, Published October 14, 2016

Twitch, the live videogame streaming platform now owned by Amazon, has been actively seeking to raise its profile in the advertising industry, luring marketers with the promise of reaching coveted young male consumers.

But the question remains whether the company can convince more conservative mainstream brands to move budgets away from traditional TV into its more unfiltered environment …

…. Charles Fiordalis, chief digital officer at Media Storm, said marketers are definitely attracted to Twitch’s young male viewership, but the site still faces “barriers.”

“Advertisers want a clean, well-lit space for their brand,” he said. Mr. Fiordalis suggested Twitch might follow YouTube’s example of building out a network of brand-safe channels for ad buyers.